Ayelet Waldman: Let's Do Lunch Literary Circle

Ayelet Waldman, author of Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, Daughter's Keeper, and Bad Mother will be talking over lunch about her new book, Love and Treasure.

Cost: The cost is $18 which includes lunch and a copy of Ayelet's new book.Tickets: Please RSVP using the link above. Payment will be taken at the door. Or, if you'd prefer to pay in advance, please contact Jenessa at 408.357.75411 or jenessa@svjcc.org.Program: Enjoy lunch and time to schmooze with each other and Ayelet before hearing Ayelet speak. After Ayelet's talk, there will be time for questions, discussion, and book signing.The series:Click here to view the entire Let's Do Lunch series.

Love and Treasure ingeniously weaves a surprising tale in triptych around the fascinating, true history of the Hungarian Gold Train in the Second World War.

In 1945 on the outskirts of Salzburg, victorious American soldiers capture a train loaded with riches: piles of gold watches; mountains of fur coats; crates filled with wedding rings, carpets, jewels, and heirloom Shabbat candlesticks. Jack Wiseman, a tough, smart New York Jew, is the lieutenant charged with guarding this treasure—a responsibility that grows more complicated when he falls in love with Ilona, a damaged, compelling Hungarian who has lost everything in the ravages of the Holocaust.

In 2013, Jack Wiseman is dying in Red Hook, Maine and entrusts a bejeweled locket with an unusual peacock motif to his granddaughter, Natalie Stein. But this is no ordinary bequest. Jack asks Natalie to return the locket—stolen from the Gold Train years ago—to its rightful owner. Natalie’s search leads to Budapest and Israel, straight into the heart of a shadowy underworld of seductive art dealers and missing paintings. But reparations of any kind are rarely simple.

In 1913 in .Budapest a beautiful nineteen-year-old Jewish girl named Nina rebels against society’s and her parents’ wishes for her future. Nina would like to study medicine and register to vote. Her parents want her to quietly marry a suitable boy of their choosing. The peacock locket makes its debut as a gift between Nina and her beloved.

Waldman expertly marries these three narratives into a fully-realized novel that is both timely and timeless. The return of art stolen by the Nazi Party remains in the news today, as does Hungary in WII (Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel is still thrilling theater-goers and garnering critical acclaim, as is Monuments Men). April is Genocide and Human Rights Awareness Month. And April 27 – May 4 is National Holocaust Remembrance week.

Ayelet Waldman is the bestselling author of the novels Red Hook Road and Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, as well as the essay collection Bad Mother. Learn more about Ayelet and her work at www.ayeletwaldman.com.